Home Merchant Is Valuable Friend Ready to Assist You In Many Ways

Devoy Grocery Store Opened In 1894

Patronage Given Him Means Success and Prosperity of Community and Yourself

IRONWOOD, MI - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - (EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part four of a twelve part series of articles that first appeared in the Ironwood Times back in 1924. Many things have changed since that time, but the message in this article is still as true today as it was back then.) When you find high class public schools located accessible to your children; when you find a community of fine churches; when you find all the conveniences of modern life at your elbow, just stop and think that this is the result of successful home trade, which has made it possible to create a splendid center of civilization in your locality. If everybody had decided to trade away from home these things could not exist in your neighborhood. They might exist in some 'remote city where your welfare is never considered, and you might as well be in the wilds of Africa, for all those who had profited by the money you sent them would care.

A safe and sound bank, a live mercantile establishment, or an industry that is commanding business in the community is a great asset to every person in that community. It is the thing that decides the stability of the town, and determines the growth of the place and its desirability as a place in which to live. No person cares to locate in a town where business is uncertain and shaky, or where conditions are so uncertain that investments in real estate would be a doubtful venture. And all of these conditions depend in the final analysis on what you are doing with your money and whether the town is receiving the business to which it is entitled.

In home trade, however, you are dealing with neighbors and friends. You are dealing with those who sorrow with you when your loved ones are taken. You are dealing with those who are ready to chip in and help as far as their means will allow them when you and your family are in distress; you are dealing with those who are your joint partners in the joys and sorrows of your home community. Disaster to you is disaster to them.

The welfare of the people of a community is inseparable. Selfishness and shortsightedness exist but it's the liberal broadminded spirit of live and let live that makes your home community an abiding place worth while.

Very few of the country towns of the state offer better business opportunities than they did twenty years ago, and in many of them the prospects are not so promising as they were at that time. One reason for this, perhaps, is the growing tendency to patronize mail order houses and stores located in the larger centers. It is worth noting that farm values depend, in some measure, at least, on the proximity of the property to a good town. Eliminate the country town, and land values surely will drop. We believe the small town is needed, and that farmers and townspeople are exceedingly short-sighted when they fail to patronize home merchants and their home institutions.